Good question, Clay. It appears to be a bunch of little black dots on the floor, although I suppose it MIGHT be a “clue” involving a very important and totally unexpected plot twist that somehow would make this week become at least somewhat coherent…oh, he means the trenchcoat, doesn’t he? Sigh. Forget everything I just said.
Wow, that’s some hatchet face on Clay in panel one. All in all the artwork this week hasn’t been all that awful, I’ll give him that much. It doesn’t come close to making up for the content, though, which has been absolutely stuporous. I lost the “plot thread” a few days back, now it’s like being in the dentist’s chair, gripping the armrests and hoping that whatever he’s doing ends as mercifully and painlessly as possible. Hey, maybe some nitrous oxide would help this make more sense…..damn it, nope. Still baffled.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I don’t pretend to know the fashion habits of men in the 40’s, but I would bet they wore hats only when going outside.
Did anyone else try to zoom in on the photo (yesterday’s comment from TFH) of TB holding up the “anti-bullying” Sunday strip to see what was going on there? In the last panel, Owen compares his plight to “being in a Hallmark movie”. There he goes again with the hatred toward cheesy cable TV movies. It’s such a weird thing to have such a passionate distaste for, you know? What’s the back story there, too many “LS” rejection letters or something?
Epicus: I just hate how often Batiuk bashes other forms of entertainment, like TV or movies, for no real reason other than they’re not comics, apparently. If he did a storyline where all the girls at Westview were obsessed with the Kardashians, that could be funny and specific, but instead he just has his characters all be obsessed with comics.
@Epicus Doomus, there’s no mystery about what’s going on this week. TB has moved FW back to the 1940’s for either;
a) Another time jump gone horribly awry.
b) To set the the long (shudder) awaited “9 Chickweed Lane” crossover. After all the only reason 9CL has been in that field forever is that they’ve been waiting for Les to show up.
I should think that we’re in for another lecture about how Les’s creative vision cannot be adulterated to appeal to the (not-comics-loving) mob.
I get it now, Batiuk is implying that a tiger being in Africa is as implausible as a wife not dying of cancer.
What a sick, sick bastard.
Wow, this masturbatory fantasy where Les thinks he’s F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (or is it Mickey Spillane? Faulkner) is really . . eh, what’s this? . . . going nowhere. There are no tigers in Africa, and that badly rendered item in the second panel looks like a dog having puppies under a burlap sack.
OK, practically the whole week is gone, so I feel comfortable saying this: I am genuinely disappointed in the lack of period-appropriate vernacular and colloquialisms in this silly fantasy sequence. I think “old top” and “Leslie” are the closest we’ve gotten. If I was imagining myself in a 1930s-40s setting, everyone would be all “What’s buzzin’ cousin? How ’bout the gams on that doll? It’ll be a gas, see…” and such phrases that I’ve gleaned from (parodies of) period films. If you’re gonna go off the rails, TB, sell it.
I’m also generally surprised that TB, with his penchant for creating slang that no one has used outside of this strip (see the Batiuktionary), has not created any of his own in this sequence. You’ve got to at least think that Ensign Walter Van Winkerbean was believed to be “in the Maine” in February 1898 before being found in in Spain in 1932, still a prisoner of war…
And just then Clay notices Sherry lying naked on the floor – dead passed out from the love of Les? Who knows? Who cares? Tune in tormorrow anyway.
Does Clay’s hatchet face remind anybody of the work of Fletcher Hanks? He was fond of these kind of faces – which also doesn’t look much like Clay in the second panel.
For christ’s sake. Big game hunter stocks game preserve with nonlocal fauna, including tigers; one escapes and attacks Tarzana. There, Les. Was that so hard?
Anyway, back to yesterday’s amazing story about the bully jocks (or more precisely, his own inactivity) that have haunted TB his whole life . Here’s the newspaper article:
“When nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip writer Tom Batiuk was in grade school, he once saw a girl bullied by his peers and did nothing.
The memory has stuck with him and will be echoed in a “Funky Winkerbean” storyline next year.”
and thanks to TFH, here’s the Act 3 writeup for 2013:
March 30-April 7 Bullying arc: Owen is troubled when he witnesses goth gurl misfit Alex being bullied at school by Wedgeman and his crew. He seeks advice from John, who instructs Owen in the “Lone Rangers Creed”. Back at school, Owen intervenes on Alex’ behalf, and is surprised to see the bullies back off, unaware that it’s because Mr. Bushka is standing behind him.
So, echoed in another story after a story that echoed that was already published last year.
The lapses in this stuff…good grief. So, “Lisa” heard Clay coming, and hid, but forgot to take her coat with her? Conversely, “Lisa” has already left, but forgot to take her coat with her? There’s just no way that this could play out like this without “Lisa” seeming like a brain-dead moron. (Par for the course in Les’ view, I guess.)
Either way, this strip just keeps reaching new levels of dumbnity.
Just from that one glimpse of one panel of the Sunday strip, you can already tell exactly how next year’s huge anti-bullying mega prestige arc will play out. Cody and Owen, finally seniors after six or seven years of high school, will get the opportunity to bully a freshman. Owen will be into it but Cody will stop him and force him to reconsider, then Owen will whine about how shitty his life is again. That’s the arc. Just like with the same-sex-prom couple arc, the actual bullying will only be mentioned in passing very briefly. And by the time that Sunday strip rolls around everyone will be praying for it to finally, mercifully end, just like right now with this stupid Les arc.